Watching 38-year-old teammate Brendan Shanahan wheeled off the ice on a stretcher in the third period did nothing to change their fortunes.

Scottie Upshall scored a key goal in his Philadelphia debut and the physical Flyers beat the Rangers 5-3 on Saturday, but most of the postgame talk regarded Shanahan, who was injured in a violent collision with Flyers forward Mike Knuble.

"We were down already, but we wanted to try and win it for him," said Rangers captain Jaromir Jagr, himself a target of the hard-hitting Flyers. "It happens in hockey but it's tough to see."

The initial reports on Shanahan were good. X-rays and a CT scan were negative, but he was to be kept overnight for observation at St. Vincent's Hospital. The Rangers said he was alert and moving his extremities.

The right side of Knuble's face was swollen, and general manager Paul Holmgren said the forward fractured his cheekbone and orbital bone. Knuble is expected to have surgery in a few days, once the swelling goes down. There is no timetable for his return to the lineup.

Knuble, second on the Flyers with 22 goals and 43 points, declined to comment as he left Madison Square Garden. Holmgren expressed concern after the game that broken bones would be revealed once Knuble had more tests at home. Knuble accompanied the team on the train ride back to Philadelphia

New York also played the final period without goalie Henrik Lundqvist, who injured his left shoulder making a save, and defenseman Marek Malik. The Rangers had a season-high 23 shots in the period.

Lundqvist and coach Tom Renney said he was held out to give him rest before Sunday afternoon's game against Chicago.

Upshall, part of the deal that sent Forsberg to the Predators during Thursday's home loss to Toronto, scored on the Flyers' first shot against backup Stephen Valiquette to give Philadelphia a 4-2 lead 2:33 into the period.

Philadelphia, the NHL's worst team, is 3-1-1 in its past five games and won for the first time this season with Forsberg out of the lineup (1-14-3).

"We've played better after the All-Star break and now the Peter thing is over," Niittymaki said. "We don't have to worry about that anymore. We can just move on."

The Rangers missed a chance to move up in the Eastern Conference playoff race. Marian Hossa, Petr Prucha, and Matt Cullen scored but New York's three-game winning streak was snapped.

Gagne made it 3-1 with his 31st goal of the season with 30.8 seconds left in the second period.

Lundqvist, still smarting from Sanderson's hard shot that hurt him 1:25 into the period, banged his stick in frustration. It marked just the third time in 14 games that Lundqvist allowed more than two goals.

Sanderson was the first Flyers player to get to him. Despite a first period in which New York held a huge shots advantage and a 6-0 power-play edge, Sanderson made it 1-0 with 6:31 left in the first period.

Philadelphia led even though it was outshot 13-2.

Hossa tied it for New York 2:26 later by tipping in rookie defenseman Daniel Girardi's shot. It was Girardi's first NHL point in 10 career games.

But another late-period goal restored Philadelphia's lead. Umberger got to a turnover in the neutral zone and went in alone on Lundqvist. His shot between the pads with 1:09 left in the period was the Flyers' 12th short-handed goal of the season -- second-best in the NHL -- and the league-low second allowed by the Rangers.

"I didn't think we competed enough," Renney said. "We needed to initiate it ourselves and sustain but we chose not to do that."

Philadelphia started strong against the Rangers. Hard-hitting forwards Ben Eager and Todd Fedoruk took three roughing penalties in the first 6:20, and Mike Richards fought New York's Sean Avery midway through the period.

"There was no feeling-out process, they just starting running" said Ward, who took four stitches above his left eye and cut his hand during a third-period fight with Alexandre Picard.

Prucha cut New York's deficit to 4-2 at 5:57 of the third, converting Jagr's rebound for his 13th goal. Jagr was drilled late along the end boards by defenseman Derian Hatcher as the goal was scored, one of several questionable hits against him that went unwhistled.

"If I have an opportunity to finish a hard check on him, I'm going to do it every time," Fedoruk said. "It's not often guys in my position are out against the top line. You hit a guy like that, it gets him thinking. It gets their team upset and off what they want to do."

Game notes
New York's power play that scored six times in the previous nine chances was 1-for-9. ... Philadelphia, 2-3-1 against New York, has killed 36 of 38 short-handed situations against the Rangers. ... Avery got into a postgame shouting match with Flyers assistant coach Craig Berube in the hallway between the dressing rooms. Berube had 3,149 penalty minutes in 1,054 NHL games.